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FREE Advice #1 The Top Social Networks to Promote Your Business On
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The Top Social Networks to Promote Your Business On I've discovered that general social networks can be a complete waste of time for business. It's that simple. In my opinion, Facebook and Myspace are a gaming gimmick that wastes office time. I've therefore decided that I'm only spending time with the "Big 4" business social networking sites SUp.biz, Plaxo, LinkedIn, and Ecademy. These four are without a doubt the top 4 social networks to promote your business on. I'll focus on the social network Fbook here real quick to prove that the four above are the best place to spend your time. Let's just look at 3 popular applications on Facebook: 1: Top Friends Add a box of up to 32 of your BFFs to your profile. 2,658,733 daily active users 2: FunWall Videos, Photos, Graffiti, Greeting Cards, Embeds and more! 2,603,946 daily active users 3: Movies Test your movie knowledge with the Never-Ending Movie Quiz. 2,373,887 daily active users A very impressive list by daily active users, you must agree. Is there anything there that jumps out at you as a compelling reason to spend time online at work 'networking'? Indeed. I could go down the list of the top 20 apps and continue showing you things that have nothing to do with networking. Now let us break down the big 4 social networks and where to spend most of your time on each of them... SUp.biz Yes, we are placing this site #1 out of the business social networks because it is simple to use and easy to get rolling as soon as you sign up. Key Places to Spend Social Network Time In: New Members Area - Each day their are hundres of new members looking to make connections. Come up with a nice introduction and welcome comment and post it on every new member's profile page. Biz Forum, Blogs, and MarketPlace - The most recent posts get placed on the home page. So everytime you make a post in any of these three areas, you are getting great exposure. Best Advice: Upgrade to Diamond Membership - You get to promote your business freely, have your blog in featured, send a message to the entire membership once a month, and you are going to be constantly getting friend requests from your top listing in the membership area (Each friend request is an opt in to your own personal email marketing list). Although this is the largest, most members are there to find a better job. It is a great social networking site, but be prepared to have to spend a few months learning the ropes. Key Places to Spend Social Network Time In: The Answers Section - Find the area that you have the most experience in and start answering questions. You will rack up points and after awhile get a featured listing in that section. Groups Directory - Use the search function to find groups that have members that might be interested in your product. Then identify the ones that are most active. Post one good discussion every couple of days. Best Advice: Upgrade to Business - This will give you a little bit more freedom in messaging, but the biggest benefit is being able to ask 10 questions per month in the Answers area. Stategically ask questions to get help and promote your business at the same time. Ecademy This is another great social network exclusive to businesses like SUp.biz. They have a nice base of members, but most areas are pay only. It is largely made up of UK and European members. Key Places to Spend Social Network Time In: Blogs - The active members spend their time posting blogs and making comments. Try and post once a day. Keep it short and simple. Ask questions about the network to get the most comments. Top 100 Social Networkers - You can identify the top 100 social networkers for each country by reputation or by total connections. This is the best place to start when making connections because these people know the ropes. Best Advice: Upgrade to Power Networker - You will be able post blogs and message other members freely. Without the upgrade you are pretty much in read only mode, so this is essential. Plaxo This is the a business card contact style network that was bought by Comcast in May 2008. It has a large international member base. Key Places to Spend Social Network Time In: Plaxo Address Book - This is the big feature of the site that allows you to sync up every email account you have. Plaxo Pulse - This is the social networking side of Plaxo. On your profile you can stream your rss feeds for everything you are involved with from photo sharing sites to microblogs. Best Advice: Have a Presence Only - You need to have a profile set up here that is sharp and interesting. Check in once a week and make a couple of changes to your profile. Remember: Networking Is A Team Sport! Rob Nunes & Trishah Woolley UFOMLM Founding Members  Founders Of The Extreme Team  Owners Of The Super-Solos  |
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeffrey J Kingman on -
Interesting. Chalkboarder.com just completed a comprehensive study of 2200 restaurant websites across the USA. By far the leading social network was Facebook. Twitter followed that. While LinkedIn is powerful - it had zero restaurant presence through search engines. MySpace was dead. I have not seen any evidence that the other three networks you recommend get any traction in helping current and potential customers find restaurants.
Here's the link to our study. 10% of USA Restaurants Use Social Media
Jeffrey Kingman, CEO
Chalkboarder.com
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Palmer on -
As a restaurant owner with a business not in a metro area it is crystal clear that in NW WA Trip Advisor, Yelp, Urbanspoon and City Search are the only sites that are current and pertinent. That being said it is my belief that in fine dining our resources must be committed to our customers and what we provide them.
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